John Taylor

“ We think we have learned a great deal, but if we did but know it we are only at the foot of the hill; and when we are able to comprehend things as God does we shall comprehend a great many principles that have never entered into our hearts to conceive of, although we are surrounded with those materials and are even treading them under our feet. To speak of these laws, God himself is governed by law, and the Priesthood in the eternal world are governed by law, just as much as his works are. Our earth rolls upon its axis and we have day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest. ”

“ Let all cultivate charity and forbearance, and how much better it will make you feel! Children, obey your parents; and parents treat your children kindly, and let us all seek to do the will of God upon the earth. May God bless you, brethren and sisters, and lead you in the paths of life; and may God help us all to do right, and may the fear and blessing of God rest upon all Israel and upon all that love the truth everywhere, and may our enemies be confounded in all their plottings against Zion, in the name of Jesus Christ. ”

“ A good many are beginning to feel like that now, the fire is beginning to burn a little more, and if we continue to fulfil our duties—and do not go and ask people to believe something we can hardly believe ourselves; but go full of faith, seeking all the while unto God for more intelligence, his Holy Spirit will beam upon the altar of our hearts ”

“ No more than it does to cause the blood to flow. We are machines; God has made us and he is our Father. He has planted within us the breath of life and we continue to inhale and breathe day after day, month after month, and year after year. ”

“ But if we could feel we are the children of God, all animated by that same Holy Spirit, producing peace and joy, and all welded together in one common brotherhood, in the bonds of the everlasting Gospel, all operating with God and the holy priesthood who have lived in other ages, to carry out his purposes upon the earth, and assisting to redeem the earth and establish his kingdom, never more to be thrown down. ”

“ Nations and peoples may be in prosperity for a short time, but one touch of the finger of the Almighty and they wither, crumble and decay. Change succeeds change in human affairs, but the laws of God in everything are correct and true in every stage and phase of nature, everything on the earth, in the waters and in the atmosphere is governed by unchangeable, eternal laws. ”

“ Shall we allow our children to be taught by them? No, never by them, for they know not the way of life, and are enemies to God and his laws. God has given unto us children, and he not only expects obedience from us, but expects us, as he did Abraham, to command our children after us to obey the Lord. Then do not let us give them over to the powers of darkness to he taught by the enemies of God and His people. But let us study their interests, both for time and eternity, and set them good examples, and keep them from the contamination of the world. ”

“ We have also to do with eternity. We are the offspring of God; and God in these last days has seen fit to place us in communication with himself. He has, through the revelations of himself and of his Son Jesus Christ, by the ministry of holy angels and by the restoration of the holy priesthood which emanates from God, and by which he himself is governed, placed us in a position whereby we can fulfil the object of our creation. The world generally are not situated as we are; they do not comprehend things as we do, and hence in many instances they feel very bitter and acrimonious towards us. ”

“ There is order in all the creations of God. The planetary system by which we are surrounded and with which we are associated is governed by the strictest principles of law; all those magnificent bodies move in their several orbits in the midst of the power of God, sustained and directed by his Almighty hand. And everything in nature is also governed by law. ”

“ I have noticed an aged person, and seen his pulse begin to falter, as though the machinery of life were about to stand still, after having been in motion for perhaps sixty or one hundred years, during which time the pulse had continued to beat without any action on his part, day and night, asleep or awake. ”

“ There is a scripture which says, the time will come "when he that will not take up his sword to fight against his neighbor, must needs flee to Zion for safety." And they will come. But we must prepare ourselves; we have got to have the invigorating influence of the Spirit of God to permeate all of our organizations, all feeling that we are under the guidance and protection of the Almighty, every man in his place, and every man according to the order of the priesthood in which God has placed him. ”

“ But if men lie and become fraudulent, and delight in abominations and are void of principle, then we will say, with him of old, "My soul enter thou not into their secret, and mine honor with him be not thou united." We are gathered here for the express purpose of carrying out the purposes of God ”

“ We want to be very careful about training our children, we should act, honestly before them; for if they see father or mother act dishonestly, the children will be likely to follow their example. We should be careful too not to be found speaking harshly or using hard words in their presence. But rather do as the old lady used to do when teaching school; when the children would come to a word they could not pronounce, she would tell them to skip it and call it "hard-word." ”

“ Can we make them obey the Gospel? No. We would not if we could, because if there was any force made use of for the accomplishment of that object, it would only result in evil instead of good. We are told by Joseph Smith that "No power or influence can, or ought to be maintained, by virtue of the Priesthood only by persuasion, by long suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; by kindness and pure knowledge." They are not to be exercised by force. ”

“ There has been a priesthood also in existence always, and hence it is called the everlasting priesthood, and it administers in time and in eternity. That priesthood has been conferred upon man together with the right of the Gospel; and we are told how man can get into possession of the Holy Spirit of God, and how he can be placed in communication with God, just the same as you would place one town in communication with another by means of the electric wire. ”

“ But what of the idea of our children attending the schools of people who teach and catechise them in this way? Don't you think it rather humiliating? I think we are descending very low when we can submit to their tuition. We do not want to partake of their feelings nor contract their ways, nor to be degraded with either their social or religious principles, but at the same time we wish to do them all the good we can. If they lie about us, never mind that; we can stand all they can say about us. ”

“ He will put the more worthy of them in a terrestrial kingdom, and the other class will inherit a telestial kingdom, but they will never get into the celestial kingdom, unless it be through the medium of that priesthood conferred upon us by the Lord. Then do we wish our children to be taught by those who would seek to degrade and lead them to another and a lower place than that we hope to enjoy? ”

“ In conclusion let me say, brethren, love one another, be kind to each other; if you have difficulties, settle them honorably. I do not know a man upon the earth that I have a solitary feeling against. ”

“ There may be lightning in abundance, but it cannot be used for the conveying of intelligence from place to place only as it is governed by law. If you communicate to any part of the world through this means, you must have the wires laid and the instruments properly connected and adjusted, and then you must know how to operate them ”

“ We have organs, and it seems as if the Lord plays in them; in his hands is the breath of life, and in him we live and move from day to day and from year to year, because he suffers us to. He once said to his disciples: "Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat; neither for your body what you shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. ”

“ And when more of that spirit is in existence among the elders of Israel, they will feel the word of God like fire in their bones, and they will desire to go forth carrying the word of life and salvation to their fellow-men who are scattered throughout the earth. ”

“ You will see them flocking to Zion by thousands and tens of thousands; and they will say, "We don't know anything about your religion, we don't care much about religious matters, but you are honest and honorable, and upright and just, and you have a good, just and secure government, and we want to put ourselves under your protection, for we cannot feel safe anywhere else." ”

“ When men comprehend the laws by which the planets are governed they can tell you to a quarter of a second when an eclipse will take place, and when our earth will be in conjunction with other planets. ”

“ But they need the Spirit of God to breathe upon them to quicken them with its life-giving vitality, energy and power, that they may fulfil their various functions as living, breathing and intelligent powers, that we may truly comprehend. the position which we occupy in these various stakes, both officers and people, and we all of us may be active and alive and energetic in the pursuit of those principles which God has developed as necessary for our present and eternal happiness. ”

“ In the first place in the one great principle that God had revealed himself to the human family and had restored the everlasting Gospel, and that with it came all these other things—apostles and high priests and elders and patriarchs and bishops and high councilors and all the various organizations of the Church and kingdom of God as they now exist upon the earth, all occupying their own peculiar place and position. ”

“ The brethren who have addressed you have spoken more particularly upon temporal things—a subject which is very appropriate and important, because, although we may believe it is right, proper and profitable for us to be united in temporal matters, whatever our faith may be we do not quite carry it out. We make a stagger at it, but we do not seem to appreciate fully the position we occupy, and it is very difficult for men to comprehend these things. We have established organizations in the several Stakes, which are all very well so far as they go ”

“ We ought to deal with and treat everybody aright, acting justly and honorably with all. But then we do not want them to be our teachers. They would think they were doing God's service if they could by any influence lead us astray. ”

“ I think they have laid before us many good and precious principles which will result in our good, if we can only appreciate them and be governed by them.
We are living in a very eventful day, in a time that is pregnant with great events; and it is necessary that we prepare ourselves so that we may be able to conform ourselves to the circumstances with which we are surrounded, and to fulfil the various duties that devolve upon us individually and collectively. ”

“ We are not all alike. Our faces are different, our habits are different, although made of the same material and possessing the same kind of an organization. So dissimilar are we that you can hardly find two people alike. ”

“ We will set them good patterns; we will teach them by precept and example better ways, and seek to the Lord for wisdom to govern us, and then try and benefit them. But shall we allow them to destroy us? ”

“ I do not want everybody to think as I do. I am willing to grant every one a great amount of leeway in regard to these things; but I would like to see everybody do right and cleave to God. And as for a great many other little things I care very little about them. Let men treat their wives kindly; and then you wives can afford to treat your husbands the same, can't you? ”

“ This is the kind of feeling we should have and be governed by. As for these other matters of a temporal nature before referred to, if we cannot co-operate together and do it honestly and in good faith, as this is one of the very best things that can be required of us, it is very little that we can do. We should cultivate the Spirit of God ourselves ”

“ Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?" He watches over all, he cares for all, he is interested in all ”

“ But in the interest of God and of Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, of Adam and of all the ancient patriarchs and apostles and men of God who have lived before, both on the Asiatic and American continent, with the powers that exist in the heavens that may be revealed through the medium which He has appointed to men who dwell upon the earth ”

“ Because they are governed by eternal laws. There are a great many things by which we are governed of which we know very little and with which we have very little to do. For instance, I will mention the flowing of the blood; What has man to do with that? ”

“ They do not understand our position; and we did not understand these things until they were communicated to us by the Spirit of the living God, and we could not, nor can any man obtain a knowledge of these things only by the laws which God has laid down. ”

“ There are some bodies that will unite; there are others that will not unite. You cannot, for instance, mix oil and water; you may shake them up together, but soon each one adheres to his own element. The sisters sometimes say they have good or bad luck, as the case may be, in the making of soap ”